'Teen Mom' Amber Portwood Could Go To Drug Rehab For 3 Years

Amber’s attorney tells HollywoodLife.com that Amber could be released from jail as early as Feb. 9 if she is accepted into the court-mandated rehab program.

Teen Mom star Amber Portwood, who has been in jail since Dec. 16 for violating probation, plead guilty on Feb. 6 to possession of a controlled substance as part of a plea deal. Her attorney Evan Broderick tells HollywoodLife.com exclusively that he’s confident that a court-mandated drug program is the right move to help Amber get her life back on track.

“We [tendered] an agreement to the court where she’ll go to drug court in lieu of taking a conviction of the new case,” Evan tells us. “If she completes drug court, she’ll get to have that case reduced or at least petition to have the case reduced down to a misdemeanor. If she violates though, she will have a five year exposure to prison.”

Amber is facing 25 months on her prior domestic battery conviction and 36 months for her new possession case. Evan came up with the plea deal to help Amber avoid prison and also to help her get healthy again. “We had come up with the idea [of the plea deal] and kind of sold it to the prosecutors office,” explains Evan.

The program will last approximately 1-3 years, shares Evan. But while this is the agreement, Amber has yet to be accepted into the program. Drug court will discuss her situation on Feb. 9, and if she’s admitted into treatment, “they will most likely let her out [of jail].”

“I’m happy with the outcome so long as she does what she’s supposed to do,” says Evan. “I won’t be happy with it if she screws it up and goes away for five years. She really needs some structure. She was kind of young and obviously came into a large amount of money and didn’t have a whole lot of structure, picked up a drug problem and some other problems. The people who graduate from that program generally come out better people.”

Amber thinks that rehab is the best option as well. “She wants to go to the program — she’s happy,” notes Evan “I ran it by her before I took it to the state because it’s a rigorous program. It’s tough. Just staying sober won’t make you graduate the program. You’ve have to do tons of different programs and appear whenever they want to take screens and take breath tests. It’s a rigorous program and a lot of people, once they find out all that it entails, will opt out — but she’s serious about wanting to get her life squared around.”